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I'm a relatively new homeowner. In the past, when I programmed the thermostat to a particular temperature at a time, the A/C would come on at that time if the current temp was above the programmed temp. But in the new house, the A/C would come on several hours ahead of the programmed schedule. I resorted to turning the entire unit off when I left the house in the morning to keep it from running when no one was home. After doing some research, I realize that there's a computer that is trying to anticipate the time/temperature I set. But I didn't want the A/C to run for hours before it was scheduled - I wanted it to start running when it was programmed to. This would be nice technology if energy were free but instead it's a major hassle and probably part of the reason my electric bills were so high. Why should the A/C start running at 7 if I'm not going to bed until 10?

So, I found out how to disable this stupid "feature." Guess the thermostat wasn't so smart after all.

Like some other chaps suggested, you can usually disable this feature (intelligent recovery.) If you are unable to do disable it you can allow for it by programming the stat. For instance if the intelligent recovery is 1 1/2 hours you can programme your set up temperature 1 1/2 hours later then you have it now. This would allow for the intelligent recovery in the programme. I had the same concern when I was still working and had chosen to use the adaptive intelligent recovery and found it came on too soon. For example, I wanted my set up temperature to start at 7AM, but it would start this set up temp at 5:30 AM. So what I did was re-programmed my stat to a set up temperature at 8:30 AM, thus the intelligent recovery would not begin untill 7 AM. So read your owners manual and find out what the intelligent recovery specs are for your stat, and allow for it, or disable it. Hope this helps some!

thorton
_______________________
The sun dries without predjudice
the garments of the rich and poor

I'm all for starting the A/C early to get down to the right temperature at the right time, but if I'm going to bed at 10 I'd rather have the A/C come on at 9, not 7 as the "adaptive recovery" was doing. If it's not exactly the right temperature at 10, that's fine with me. Because the system builds its own profile of the time to cool, you can't just anticipate it (e.g. if the thermostat always starts an hour early, program the timer to start an hour later). Depending on what it thinks is best, it will vary how much earlier it starts.

I am becoming convienced that my Honeywell Chronotherm III t-stat was sent back in time from the future by the Skynet robot army to terminate me. But my wife still doesn't believe me.

Actually, the adaptive recover program, which has been around for many years now, was designed and invented by Jane Fonda and Gloria Stienham as another method to torture men. I'm not suppose to talk about this but you should know. It seems to be doing a fine job on you. Notice your wife always grins as you frustrate about this!

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the public's own money.
- Alexis﻿ de Toqueville, 1835

My last system which I replaced a little over a month ago had a mind of its own.

It was a Bard 2.5 ton AC unit with a Bard Diesel fuel furnace.
My thermostat was like some ancient golden dial looking thing... don't remember what the brand is... its in the garbage dump by now....

But I would have the thermostat set to like 72..... the house would be like 65 and the AC would be running.... on some days the thermostat would be still set to 72 and it would be like 76 in the house and the AC would finally kick on.... it was crazy....

The heat on the other hand... um... Diesel fuel sux.... lets leave it at that....

Now i have a new lennox all electric system with a heat pump in stead of an ac unit... and the system actually listens to my thermostat (I think its one of the cheap honey well ones)

Even though it all works very well together..... I never really thought much about the thermostat..... Its a digital one and works like its supposed to.. but I only wish I would have thought about getting some options on a programmable one....

My woman is about to pop out a kid in 10 days.. so its not much of a big deal since she will be home for the next 3 months anyway.... but Its something I need to think about when she goes back to work

I can sympathize. My old MapleChase t-stat (your days are numbered, my friend! I'll have the last say by next week ...) truly attempted to cryogenically deep-freeze us a month ago.

Both AA batteries had died, leaving the thing catatonic --- display was locked up, and the AC was left to run all day. By 10 or 11pm we were like, hey, it feels like it's 50 in here!!

By then the damage was done, albeit perhaps coincidentally. Soon after the contactor on the condenser went bad, and so did the coil inside the house ... yes, right or wrong I am completely blaming the two AA batteries for my now multi-thousand replacement bill coming soon.